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>>>back now at 7:42 with a "rossen reports" exclusive in the wake of the
boston
bombings. new sophisticated tools used by police that may help protect us from future attacks. "today" national investigative correspondent
jeff rossen
is in
boston
. good morning.

>> reporter: good morning to you. it's really amazing what they can do. i look forward to showing you some of the demonstrations. here in
boston
we saw how important the
video surveillance
cameras are, after the attacks did not take long to identify the suspects. what if those cameras were so
high tech
they could pick out a bomb hidden on the street before it goes off, as you're about to see the future is now. watch this man. he drops a bag on the ground, then walks away. what if it was a bomb, could officers spot it? now the nypd can, in seconds, using new cutting edge technology.

>>the system gives the officers an alert, it says it's an abandoned package at the
chrysler building
.

>> reporter: it gives you an image own circles the package.

>>shows you where the package was left.

>> reporter: it's called
artificial intelligence
, software that turns
surveillance cameras
into smart cameras, so smart the computer learns what normal behavior looks like on every corner, and can spot abnormalities instantly from abandoned packages to suspicious activity, alerting police in
real time
. how effective has it been?

>>we've had 16 plots against the city since
september 11th
and none have succeeded.

>> reporter: what if the suspects are in a car? the nypd showed us in this simulation a vehicle on the
watch list
entered the city. special cameras are tracking them, reading thousands of
license plates
every second.

>>our cameras just spotted the vehicle on the
west side highway
, not only do we know where the car is, we get two pictures in
real time
of that vehicle. in addition, it will show us every place where that
license plate
has been scanned before in our system going back as long as we have data.

>> reporter: these cameras can even pick suspects out of a crowd based on the shirt they're wearing. let's say it's red. each of the city's 4,000 cameras can hone in and pull all the
red shirts
out.

>>it gives individuals who want to think about attacking some
food for thought
.

>> reporter: john frazzini is a former
secret service
agent now selling smart technology from agencies from houston to
san francisco
. while no one knows if it would have prevented the bombings in
boston
, officials say this technology is the future. do you think this can change the face of
law enforcement
?

>>this is changing the face of
law enforcement
. catching these events before they happen is the
name of the game
.

>> reporter: boston police
do not have this technology yet but told us late last night right now everything is on the table. police officials say this technology by no means doesn't replace
police officers
on the streets patrolling, they say it is just a tool to help them and if anything else the reason they wanted to us share this with you at home is because they're hoping it's a deterrent to terrorists we'll catch you before you strike.